Power converters, such as inverters, are essential components for various machines using DC and/or AC power, such as electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and so on. These power converters use resin-molded capacitors in view of their mechanical strength, heat resistance, and moisture resistance. An input of a large current to a resin-molded capacitor results in a large amount of heat generated from the resin-molded capacitor itself. This may reduce the insulation resistance and the lifetime of the resin-molded capacitor. Thus, in order to control an amount of heat generated from a resin-molded capacitor, there is a technology disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-111370.
In the technology, a capacitor and a temperature sensor are resin-molded with each other, so that they are molded, i.e. enclosed, in a hardened resin as a resin mold, i.e. package. In the resin mold, the temperature sensor is arranged to be close to the capacitor. A controller is provided to be connected to the temperature sensor via a wire harness. The controller is operative to detect an amount of heat generated from the capacitor itself as a temperature of the capacitor when a current is input to the capacitor, and control an amount of the input current to the capacitor according to the detected amount of heat.